There they were
stuck
dog and bitch
halving the compass
Then when with his yip
they parted
oh how frolicsome
she grew before him
playful
dancing and
how disconsolate
he retreated
hang-dog
she following
through the shrubbery
April Is The Saddest Month
Analysis, meaning and summary of William Carlos Williams's poem April Is The Saddest Month
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I don’t totally agree with the comment below this one. While it’s true that Elliot was often purposely obtuse, I’m not sure this poem is a mockery as much as an addendum to the Wasteland. Clearly the title is meant to tie the two together, but the content of Elliot’s Wasteland seems to mirror the content of this poem — a sort of fractured metaphor for distance and dissociation between people. Moreover, W.C.W seems to make a habit of employing straightforward language to portray complex metaphor and imagery — hence his famous “red wheelbarrow” poem. Surely not all such poems of his are conscious mockeries of modern poetry’s (read: Elliot and Pound’s) often opaque use of language.
This is a spoof on TS Eliot’s classic poem “The Wasteland.” Eliot has a very superfluous style and his poems are so complex they border on incomprehensible. TS Eliot’s poem starts “April is the cruelest month,” and then Eliot leads off into all sorts of other stuff. WCW mocks this by deliberately using very simple language to describe a very unpoetic and prosaic moment, in direct contrast to Eliot’s poem.
I believe this is an ironic sort of twist because of the name of the poem and the meaning of the poem. April in this poem is about making new families and teh title contradicts that.